Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Zia Lanier Topple - born Oct 29, 2011

Because Trasie was considered a high risk pregnancy, in addition to having low fluid in her uterus during the final week of pregnancy AND the 2 cm growth on the developing baby's bottom, her doctors recommended she go in when contractions were consistent at 10 minutes apart. When she woke me up at 2 am on Saturday, Oct 29 and told me that this was the case, I said to her, "Let's wait until they are 7 and a half minutes apart?" Not a great performance on my part; I'm hard to rouse at that hour, no matter the circumstance. When I came to my senses, we were off to St. Vincent's in a flash.

Labor was fairly mild....from my perspective anyway. Contractions slowly became more frequent that by 5 am we were moved from triage and to our own labor room. Different from last time when she was connected to an IV and restricted in movement, Trasie was freer to move about and even get in the jacuzzi--which she did! Her mother, Suegra, came about 7, and there we encouraged Trasie as she did her thing. About 11:30am, we became a little restless predicting another false alarm, "This baby's not coming 'til tomorrow," we both agreed. Trasie was silent on this issue, just reminding us when she was having another contraction. Suegra and Papa Dale went off to get a bite to eat at noon, and no sooner had they walked out of the room did groans I hadn't heard since Ruby Gene's birth, came, reminding me of hidden memories from 2 and three quarter years ago. I didn't panic, remembering that these went on for about 4 hours with Ruby. However, I now was convinced that the baby was coming sooner rather than later. I sent a quick text to Suegra, "Contractions getting more intense."

About 30 minutes later, Trasie requested a revisit to the jacuzzi. I asked the nurse, Julie Paige, it it would be okay. "Sure," she said, "after we give her another dose of antibiotics" Trasie would never make it back to the jacuzzi. Hooked up to her IV, she was limited in movement. Time suddenly began to speed up dramatically. The moans from room 3619 were echoing in the hallway. I sent another text to my suegra: "Come asap!" Trasie yelled, "This baby's coming." All of us - the nurses, Trasie's mother, the on-call doctor (who was at his child's soccer game), even me - had been incredulous. Now we believed! Activity picked up in the room: nurses were coming in and out, the cart with surgical tools and the "baby receptical" were brought in, and Suegra came rushing in. Suegra took her place opposite me, as we were flanked Trasie. Since no doctor was around, nurses began to debate who would put the catcher's mit on: "you're in midwifery school" "I'm not done with the program yet; besides you've got more experience." Had I had my wits about me, I'm sure I would have stepped in and said, "I'll catch this baby!" But instead, I paniced a bit and shouted, "Where's the....." I stopped, what good did it do to intensify the already intense atmosphere. Ironically, we almost moved back to Atlanta out of concern for the well being of this baby, and here we were, about to give birth, and there was no doctor present...

Trasie pushed once, then twice, and a purple head was unveiled. "The cord is wrapped around the baby's neck," said the catching nurse. "Cut it!" directed another. Trembling hands held scissors that snipped the tangled cord from the neck.

Another push and out she came!

And just like that, at 1:21 pm, Oct 29, 2011, Zia Lanier Topple nearly became the 7 billionth human being to populate the Earth.

She was handed to her mother. Is there anything more pure and beautiful than a newborn in her mother's arms? Flesh upon flesh. Grace upon grace. God is good.